What the Dickens?

Drood by Dan Simmons is an amazing novel that will keep you enthralled right until the end. The novel deals with the last five years of Charles Dickens life, and is told through the eyes of his friend and author Wilkie Collins. After surviving the massive train accident Dickens becomes obsessed with a strange figure he meets at the crash site known as Drood.

The book takes us through the underbelly of Victorian London and is a vivid picture of these times. The book is also helped by the voice of the narrator, Wilkie Collins, as he also is drawn into Dicken's obsession and he begins to swing between admiration and resentment for Dickens.

Simmons also references a lot of the novels written by Dickens and Collins and this only helps to set the scene further, especially if you are familiar with either of the authors.

Guillermo del Toro is quoted on the cover and I can only dream about him filming a version of this wonderful book.

In the end this book is a masterpiece of storytelling, and I urge everyone to read it.

Ilium

Dan Simmons always writes interesting stories. As I read my way through Ilium and Olympos I marvel at his vision and ability to make you think.

In this series humanity has developed into humans and posthumans. The posthumans though have left earth and the remaining humans are unsure what this means.

Meanwhile on Mars resurrected Homer scholars find themselves tasked by seven foot tall Greek Gods to observe and record the siege of Troy which is being fought in a recreated Mediterranean.

Also robots working on Jupiter's moons decide to find out what has happened to the posthumans and set of to Mars to investigate the millions of giant statues being carved around the landscape.

This series is well worth reading. Get yourself a copy and read the words of a true thinker.

Second time around

A little while ago I talked about re-reading books I like and this is one of them that I have been reading lately. Dan Simmons Hyperion series has been the focus of my re-reading and I must admit that each time I read it I get something new from it.

Simmons wears literary influences on his sleeve with this novel, named after an unfinished Keats poem, and structured like The Canterbury Tales, Simmons sets out to tell an amazing story.

The book revolves around the planet Hyperion and a group of pilgrims who are summoned to the planet because the Shrike is waking up from the Tombs of Time.

The pilgrims decide to tell their stories during the journey to the Tombs and the novel is set out in sections as each pilgrim tells their tale and why they are connected to the Shrike.

This is a fantastic book and is full of ideas and makes the reader think long after they have finished reading it.

This is well worth reading and look for the rest of the series to experience the full scope of this story. The other books are Fall of Hyperion, Endymion, and Rise of Endymion.